American Go E-Journal » 2012 » August

Fort Washington, PA: Come and join us on Sunday afternoons playing go at the Upper Dublin Township Library, 805 Loch Alsh Ave, Fort Washington, PA 19034. We play from 1P until 4 (or until we’re thrown out). Players of all levels, including raw beginners, are invited to join us. There is always room for more! If you have questions, contact Neil Zod at nlzod@verizon.net.Go Classifieds are FREE and get results! Email yours to us at journal@usgo.org

Chinese Taipei is dominating the World Mind Sports Games, winning six of the 9 medals awarded thus far, including gold, silver and bronze in the Men’s Individual, gold and silver in the Team, and gold in the Women’s Individual.Japan took silver in the Women’s,Canada took bronze in the Women’s, andSingapore took bronze in the Team.

After 7 months of intensive development, the Kaya Go Server (Kaya Go Server Aims at Online Audience 9/19/2011) programmers are releasing the beta version. “Kaya has been growing a lot technically in the past six months,” reports lead developer Gabriel Benmergui. “We have made weekly releases improving and adding features, including automatic professional relay games, variation sharing and voiced countdowns, Fischer time system and many more since we came out on Christmas 2011.” The server can now broadcast simultaneous game video and commentary and the system’s been field-tested at several tournaments, with Guo Juan 5P using it for a lecture at this year’s Canadian Open, which was broadcast on Kaya, courtesy of the Quebec Go Association. In addition, “OpenKaya, the open-source side of the project, has had collaboration by many people and contains hundreds of hours of work,” Benmergui adds. Over $13,000 in donations thus far have enabled the team to develop the project full time. “Kaya works in all devices,” Benmergui notes. “Although it’s not optimized yet for Android and iPad, it is usable in those devices, without the need to download anything.”

Congress Tournament Winners: In addition to winning the North American Ing Masters, Matthew Hu (right) won the 2012 U.S. Open at the recent U.S. Go Congress, collecting a set of jade stones and bowls donated by the Confucius Institute of Raleigh, North Carolina in addition to his cash prize and trophy. Evan Cho won the Strong Players Open. Click here for a PDF of the prize-winners in all the Congress tournaments, including North American Ing Masters, Strong Players Open, Pair Go, US Open, Continuous Self-Paired Tournament, Wednesday Die Hard Tournament, Midnight Madness, Wisonet Cup State Team Go Tournament, Michael Redmond Cup, Youth Team, Youth Room Tournaments, 9×9 Tournament, 13×13 Tournament, Crazy Go, Lightning Go. Click here for pro game commentaries (scroll down to Game Review) and here for final results in the NAIM, US Open and Strong Player’s Open. Also, click here for an album of Congress photos, posted by Co-Director Peter Armenia.

Congress Credits: “Putting on a Go Congress is a monumental effort,” says 2012 U.S. Go Congress Co-Directors Peter Armenia and Paul Celmer (below, right, with Congress Registrar Arlene Bridges; Armenia is at left). “It is even more of a challenge with an unpaid, volunteer staff. Every staff member running around during the recent Go Congress was working hard for the love of the game and as a service to the go community. Many had defined roles, but some simply dove in where they saw a problem or need. And this year besides the Congress, we had the challenge of adding the Pro Certification Tournament, International Go Symposium, and Youth Go Camp. Supporting these events is a complex and stressful task, and we could not have done it without a highly skilled, energetic, and dedicated team.” One of the most inspiring moments for Celmer came at the very end of the Congress, when one of the Blue Ridge Assembly maintenance staff came up in his truck. “He came out of his truck, shook my hand, and thanked me because one of our staff had taught his ten-year-old son the game,” says Celmer.

There are also a few commemorative USA-shaped half-inch thick plywood go boards still available for sale, $40 dollars plus shipping, as well as the puzzle coasters with Congress logo, $15 dollars plus shipping. Email paul@gocongress12.org if you are interested. If you would like to purchase a replica of the large USA shaped board that the two pros played on, contact Frank Salantrie (standing, in photo below right) at fesalantrie@nc.rr.com.

“We want to thank the following volunteers, as well as all those that have helped this Congress and who have helped spread the game we love,” say Celmer and Armenia.

The AGA will hold simultaneous men’s and women’s selection tournaments to fill two U.S. slots at the 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing, China, from December 12-20. The two selected players – one male and one female — will each compete in the Men’s and Women’s Individual tournaments, and then together as a pair in the Mixed Doubles competition. The sponsors of the tournament will provide travel and accommodation for the players, as well as generous prize money depending upon performance in the tournament.

Each selection tournament will be a 3-round knockout tournament. The rounds are on August 29 – September 1, September 2-4, and September 5-8. The men’s tournament will consist of the six highest-rated players from the US, and two players from Canada. All players must be 7D+ or professional. The women’s tournament will consist of the six highest-ranted players from the US, and two players from Canada. All players must be 4D+ or professional.

In order to compete, players must be citizens of either theUS orCanada, and have been resident in their country of citizenship for at least 6 of the last 12 months. AGA players must have been full or youth continuous members since August 29, 2011. The two selected players will play under theUS flag and colors. The selected players must be able to travel to China and participate in the tournaments from December 12 to 20.

Players may reschedule with mutual consent within those time windows, otherwise they must play at the official game times on KGS in the AGA Tournaments Room: 8 pm ET/5 pm PT on August 30(Thur), September 3(Mon), and September 6(Thur). If the players do reschedule their games within these windows, they must inform the TD immediately of their scheduled time of play.

To register, please click here. Registration for these selection tournaments closes at midnight on Monday, August 27.

The second World Mind Sport Games (WMSG) opened on Friday, August 9 at the Lille Grand Palais in Lille, France. In all, about 2,000 players from five sports will compete in bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go, and xiangqi (Chinese Chess). Go events started in full force on Monday, August 13. EuroGoTV and IGS-Pandanet are broadcasting daily games from the WMSG. In all, five gold medals will be awarded in the following go events: men’s and women’s singles and teams, pair, and youth. The first medals were awarded during Saturday’s Gala dinner to three long-time contributors to promoting mind games: Timothy Fok for xiangqi, Gianarrigo Rona for bridge, and Thomas Hsiang for go.

Shavit Fragman, the EJ’s Special Correspondent in Israel, reports that Israel will be represented by Amir Fragman, a 19- year-old 5-dan from Rosh HAAyin and Reem Ben David, a 16-year-old 3-dan from Petach Tiqwa. Amir Fragman currently serves in the medical corps as a research assistant and is a member of the Israeli go team, which has been doing very well in tournaments this summer. Reem Ben David is in 11th grade at high school in Petach Tiqwa; this is his first international tournament.

Fresh from his appearance at the U.S. Go Congress, Liang Wei-Tang 9P will appear at an event in the Washington DC area on Tuesday, August 14. The Chinese professional’s visit is sponsored by the the Capital Go Club and Rockville Go & Chess Group. The event includes a simul with Mr. Liang, who will also do game commentaries and conduct a Q&A session. The event is free and all are welcome, but pre-registration is required. Area go players and others interested are also welcome to observe.

Liang was born in Guangdong, China in 1963 and began learning go at 10. In 1999 he was rated among the top players in the country. The only 9-dan pro in Shenzhen, Liang has played a major role in building the local go community. “At one time, the President of the Shenzhen Go Academy, Mr. Wu Fu-Jou, praised Liang 9P as more valuable than pandas,” says local organizer Edward Zhang, “because there are more than two thousand pandas inChinabut there are only around thirty 9-dan professionals.”

This event is also co-sponsored by the American Go Association, Rockville Sister Cities Corporation, and Great Falls Go Club. Transamerica Financial Advisors and Rockville United Church is also providing financial support.

In a dramatic game that saw the lead change hands several times 14-year-old Zi Yang (Matthew) Hu 1P (at right) prevailed over brand-new U.S. professional Zhi Yuan (Andy) Liu 1P in the North American Ing Masters (NAIM) tournament final round Friday night. Hu had also defeated Liu in the 5th round of the U.S. Open Friday morning, his 5-0 record giving him a virtual lock on winning the Open, which has one more round on Saturday. Liu had a winning position coming out of the middle game, according to game commentator Yilun Yang 7P, but allowed Hu to start a ko that wound up erasing Liu’s lead and he resigned shortly afterwards. Click here for the game commentary (scroll down to Game Review). Click here for latest results in the NAIM, US Open and Strong Player’s Open.

“Andy played really well today,” Hu said after the game, “I think maybe I was just a little more lucky.” Liu said that the games showed that “The difference between an amateur and a professional is staying calm no matter how complicated the game gets. I have a lot to learn from Matthew.”

After the game, the board Hu and Liu played on — a 2-inch kaya board donated by Yutopian — was auctioned off to benefit the American Go Foundation, with E-Journal Broadcast Coordinator Todd Heidenreich’s $600 bid winning both the board — which had been signed by both players as well as game commentors Yilun Yang 7P, Mingjiu Jiang 7P and Maeda Ryo 6P — and two unique bowls created especially for the event by Todd Blatt of MakerBot using his replicator.
Women’s Tournament: Amanda Miller 9k and Caroline Scheck 16k were both 3-0 going into the final round on Friday.- reported by Lee Huynh

NAIM/SPO PLAYER PHOTOS POSTED: Photos are now posted of the players in the North American ING Masters and the Strong Players Open. Plus, in the crosstabs for the US Open, NAIM and Strong Player’s Open, hovering over the result shows who a player’s opponent was. “It’s a small change, but it makes viewing the crosstabs a thousand times more pleasant,” says an EJ reader.- reports by Chris Garlock: photos by Phil Straus (top right) and Steve Colburn (bottom left); photo (l-r): AGF President Terry Benson, E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock, EJ Simulcast Manager Todd Blatt; Matthew Hu 1P, Todd Heidenreich, Andy Liu 1P, Yilun Yang 7P, Maeda Ryo 7P.

Kelsey Dyer 1D (right) and Yuan Zhou 7D (left) won the 2012 U.S. Pair Go Championships Thursday night at the U.S. Go Congress. They defeated Yukino Takehara 2k and Justin Ching 3D in the first round and then beat Amy Su 4D and Lionel Zhang 6D to clinch the title. They’ll represent the United States later this year at the World Pair Go Championships in Tokyo, Japan. Su and Zhang took second; in third were April Ye 1k and Kevin Huang 7d and in fourth place were Yukino Takehara 2k and Justin Ching 3d. Todd Heidenreich directed, with Assistant TD Jesy Feliccia and special assistance by Dennis Wheeler and Steve Colburn.- photo by Chris Garlock